Jaxon Phillips

February 22, 2018

“Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici”
-Latin Proverb

Across the country, countless children are abused, neglected, and unwanted. Some of these
children are taken, or placed, in to state custody, some, for years. These children are now trapped
in a system that seeks more to contain than it does ensure future success. The only way out is
either: Age Out(turn 18, after which several states offer minimal assistance) or be able to return
to your family(the amount of children/teens who are released from state custody back to their
families is only a staggering 21% of all cases{DCFS}). In a study done by The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO), 40-50% of all children in state
custody will never graduate high school and 66% of them will either become homeless, go to
jail, or die within one year of leaving the system. These children, from the moment they enter
custody are being held far, far back in life, with no clear path to living a stable and successful
life. Some of them, come from broken, and horribly abusive homes, where they’re unwanted and
uncared for. But their lives didn’t have to be ones so close to the depths of human depravity.
With abortion, women are given the choice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy before coming
to full term, allowing them to continue their lives free from hinderance and financial setbacks. In
recent years, the argument over the right has increased, spawning a rise in national debate. This
debate is delaying the the process to give women the fundamental right to govern their own
bodies, and provide them with access to safe abortion treatments, without facing societal
contempt.

The conflict of abortion goes back multiple decades, with famous Supreme Court case Roe V.
Wade being a major staple in the legal fight. Its “landmark decision” set a valuable precedent,
stating that laws restricting or criminalizing abortions were constitutionally unjust. The Court
ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended
to a woman's decision to have an abortion. Legal precedent, is a rule or principle established
from a prior case that can be used when applying judgment to a case of similar or relating
circumstances. The decision prohibits criminalizing women who get abortions, while also
restricting state legislatures from making it more difficult to get abortion treatments. Many
opponents to Abortion claim that that United States Supreme Court’s ruling was unjust and all
around wrong. They believe that the precedent should not have been established. This argument
is highly illogical because when claiming that a court’s decision was unconstitutional we cannot,
and we do not, look solely at the one case. We look at ALL the decisions made by the court,
especially by the USSP. Other landmark cases were Miranda V Arizona(Gives the people a
defined set of rights upon incarceration), Gideon V. Wainwright(The right to have state provided
legal counsel), then lets not forget Brown V. Board of Education, which removed the heavy
segregation in public schools at that time. To question the decision made in Roe V. Wade would
require questioning all other famous landmark cases, thus threatening the rights that give our
people their freedom and safety.

A staggering financial statistic with abortions is that 42% of women that get abortions are
beneath the poverty line(Guttmacher Institute). That’s beneath the poverty line with only 1-
2(possible partner) people participating in the household income and is a range of $18,000-
24,000 thousand dollars. Having a child jumps the amount of needed income to a whopping
$31,000. If the mother were to be single, and beneath the poverty line (likely), she would have to
support a child on her estimate $18,000 dollar salary. The charge for an uncomplicated cesarean
section was about $15,800 in 2017. An uncomplicated vaginal birth cost about
$9,600(Department of Health). Expenses such as these, plus the tens of thousands of dollars that
follow, can financially cripple a person. In a study by the Department of Education, 78% of all
college students that have children while in school dropout being unable to pay both school
expense and hospital/child raising expenses, and of those 78%, only 15% ever return. Keeping
all these numbers in mind, the average abortion can cost anywhere from $300-$800, with the
average being around $600. Big difference, huh?

In conclusion, an already established LEGAL precedent has already been established, granting
the legality to have an abortion, and to have one in private. Hundreds of thousands, to millions of
children around the world have been orphaned, and the number continues to climb. And the
financial requirements of a child can weigh heavily on a person. The right to have an abortion
should be up to only the women who decide to receive one, and not anyone else. In past several
major meetings in congress and other legislative bodies(state lawmakers) on abortion, the people
who participates were primarily...MEN. Which is interesting because...I’ve never heard of a man
needing an abortion before.

Thank you.